PARTRIDGE SHOOTING. 



THE AMERICAN PARTRIDGE PERDIX YIRGINIANUS. 



Description. " The American partridge is nine 

 inches long, and fourteen in extent; the bill is 

 black; line over the eye, down the neck, and 

 whole chin, pure white, bounded by a band of 

 black, which descends and spreads broadly over 

 the throat ; the eye is dark hazel ; crown, neck 

 and upper parts of the breast, red brown ; sides 

 of the neck, spotted with black and white on a 

 reddish brown ground ; back, scapulars and les- 

 ser coverts, red brown, intermixed with ash, and 

 sprinkled with black; tertials, edged with yel- 

 lowish white ; wings plain dusky ; lower parts 

 of the breast and belly, pale yellowish white, 

 beautifully marked with numerous curving spots, 

 or arrowheads of black ; tail, ash, sprinkled with 

 reddish brown ; legs, very pale ash. The female 

 differs from the male in having the chin and 

 sides of the head yellowish brown." 



The young broods are fit for the sport by the 

 twentieth of October, and although inferior to 



